Overview

This course is designed to provide students with analytical tools to conceptualise the relationship between the media, populism and politics. It focuses on the cultural, social and economic consequences of the formation and implementation of policies that shape the media. Special attention will be paid to the question of what kind of economic environment the media operates in and by whom it is controlled. Among the themes to be explored are the links between the transformation of the media and the rise of neoliberal policies and right wing populism around the world; the relationship between populist discourses and the media (e.g. the process of mediatization of politics and the threat of media populism to democratic values); the link between the new media (in particular, social media) and populism; the construction of identities (e.g. ethnicity, minorities as well as gender and masculinity) in the media.